JazzFest International

JazzFest International @ Open Space
All shows: $18

SNOW/ONDA/LICHT TRIO
FRIDAY, JUNE 26 ~ 8PM
Although most renowned as a visual artist and experimental filmmaker, Canada’s Michael Snow has been a professional jazz pianist since the 1950s. An originator of free improvisation, this bold innovator continues to explore the farthest shores of modern music. He meshes well with the long-term duo of Onda and Licht. Japan’s Aki Onda is a composer and performer of electronica who manipulates multiple tape sources in concert.His partner and fellow avant gardist is Alan Licht, a guitarist whose unique approach has earned him gigs with everyone from John Zorn to DJ Spooky.

JASON HWANG’S EDGE
SATURDAY, JUNE 27 ~ 8PM
Asian music is the primary inspirational source for this virtuosic New Music quartet from NYC. Led by violinist/violist Jason Kao Hwang, a brilliant performer and composer, Edge is a unique hybrid that embraces world music, jazz harmonics, the structure of chamber music and the freedom that comes with disciplined imagination. Their second CD, Stories Before Within, was a remarkable, multi-layered exercise in musical synergy that was on the 2008 top 10 lists of Coda Magazine and All About Jazz. Hwang’s equally gifted collaborators include Taylor Ho Bynum cornet/flugelhorn, Andrew Drury drums and Ken Filano bass.

MONK’S CASINO
SUNDAY, JUNE 28 ~ 8PM
Angular and unmistakable, the music of bebop originator Thelonious Monk is now regarded with a reverence that was lacking when he was alive and writing beauties like “Ruby My Dear.” Now, a virtuosic quartet from Germany named Monk’s Casino have dedicated themselves to finessing all of the master’s 70 plus compositions for live performance. Lead by Alexander von Schlippenbach piano and featuring Rudi Mahall bass clarinet, Axel Dörner trumpet and Uli Jennessen drums, Monk’s Casino is more reinvention than retro when they showcase the genius and jagged beauty of one of jazz’s most distinctive voices.